New Info From NYT on Leak-Gate

[kpete]

Intelligence Leaked by Aide to Cheney Was in Dispute
By DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID BARSTOW
Published: April 9, 2006Mr.

Fitzgerald's latest filing also describes the degree to which senior White House officials kept information from one another. Even as the president was dispatching Mr. Libby to disclose what until then had been classified intelligence to Ms. Miller of The Times, other White House officials, including Stephen J. Hadley, now Mr. Bush's national security adviser, were debating whether this same information should be formally declassified and made public, prosecutors assert.

But Mr. Libby "consciously decided not to make Mr. Hadley aware of the fact that defendant himself had already been disseminating the N.I.E. by leaking it to reporters while Mr. Hadley sought to get it formally declassified," Mr. Fitzgerald's motion states. Mr. Hadley's spokesman declined to comment on the filing on Friday.

But a senior official close to Mr. Hadley said that “it appears that the only three people who knew about the instant declassification were Dick Cheney, George Bush and Scooter Libby.” The official refused to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the issue.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/washington/09leak.html?ei=5094&en=ae 8daa5efe411a3c&hp=&ex=1144555200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all

[Stephanie]

1. The long, long wait was worth it after all.

We have been waiting three years for this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=211244

[caledesi]

6. Reminds me of Watergate....well worth the wait!

Suddenly WG just exploded. I see a pattern here w/ all "the president's men" starting to go down around him and the Repubs have said NOTHING. Just like WG. Nixon's polls plummeted because the public wasn't happy and the tapes nailed the coffin. Repubs turned like snakes.

As an aside, Nixon fired the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, and guess what? Ther Freepers are calling for the same thing! Didn't they get the memo? Didn't work for Nixon, only made situ worse.

Freeps are all wigged-out that this is news every day. LOL!



edit: usual stuff

[KittyWampus]

9. That photo of Fitzgerald is demeaning & trivializes his efforts

it's in such bad taste, it's hard to believe.

[caledesi]

17. Believe. I do. Thought it was funny...Fitzmas and all. nt

[Canuckistanian]

20. Demeaning how?

Last time I looked, Santa Claus wasn't a villain.

This man is giving us all gifts!

And lighten up, this is just a bit of humor.

I'm sure Fitz himself would be embarassed, not offended.

[mirandapriestly]

22. Really? I think it shows that he never stops working & the closest

that he gets to celebrating is to put on a Santa hat. I think it's cute, too..

[Catherine Vincent]

13. That post from 2003,

Is that what started the search for the perfect Karl Rove frog march photoshop? lol!

[aquart]

2. "Instant declassification." My, my, my.

Dickie, Georgie, and Scooter. All by themselves.

[Clarkie1]

3. This is proof Bush/Cheney sought to pervert the intelligence report.

"Defendant understood that he was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the N.I.E. held that Iraq was 'vigorously trying to procure' uranium," prosecutors wrote.

In fact, the estimate's key judgments, which were officially declassified 10 days after Mr. Libby's meeting with Ms. Miller, say nothing about the uranium allegations. The key judgments on Iraq's nuclear program — namely, that Iraq was again trying to build a bomb — were based instead on other intelligence, like the assertion that Iraq was seeking high-strength aluminum tubes for nuclear centrifuges. Ms. Miller authored no newspaper article about the leaked weapons information.

In an interview with The Times in 2004, a senior intelligence official involved in drafting the estimate said the uranium allegations were excluded from the key judgments because the drafters knew there were serious doubts about their accuracy.

As a result, the official said, the drafters cast the uranium allegations as a minor element in the overall assessment of Iraq's nuclear capabilities. The assertion that Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure" uranium was mentioned on the bottom of Page 24 of the 90-page document. The drafters also noted, in an annex attached to the end of the document, that State Department intelligence officials considered the uranium allegation "highly dubious."

[C_U_L8R]

4. "instant declassification" ???

Were Georgie, Dickie and Scooter playing Double-Naught Spy again ????

What utter BS.

[otohara]

5. Hard To Understand Why Anyone Believes

a word these people said and say now. There's still so many talking heads on TV to willing explain away the lies. Depends now on what the meaning of "instant" is?

Shame on all those in congress who voted for IWR - fake documents, fake uranium, fake news, fake adults!

[WiseButAngrySara]

16. Shame is not enough here. The one thing that is not fake is all of the

dead and wounded Iraqis and Americans. This is crime that warrants a trial at The Hague. I don't think even the media will forgive them for this.

[Patsy Stone]

7. So... revenge on two for the price of one makes it a "good leak"?

Not only were they able to discredit Wilson and leak his wife's name, but they tried to shift the blame to the CIA at the same time. How efficient!

"By releasing Mr. Libby to discuss the conclusion in the National Intelligence Estimate, the official said, "they were dumping this back in Langley's lap," making it clear that Mr. Bush had relied on information provided by the intelligence agencies. The C.I.A. headquarters are in Langley, Va."

And, then, Hadley really didn't know anything about the leak and was an unwitting participant in the coverup? Why would he worry about being indicted if he didn't know?

"But Mr. Libby 'consciously decided not to make Mr. Hadley aware of the fact that defendant himself had already been disseminating the N.I.E. by leaking it to reporters while Mr. Hadley sought to get it formally declassified,' Mr. Fitzgerald's motion states. Mr. Hadley's spokesman declined to comment on the filing on Friday."

[Garbo 2004]

14. Leak of NIE info, apparently he didn't know; leak of Plame was why he was

(reportedly) worried.

[Patsy Stone]

15. Thanks.

I was wondering about posting a follow up about just that before you answered the question I didn't ask. :)

[caledesi]

19. Excellent point Garbo. nt

[lumpy]

25. kick

v

[alfredo]

8. A man who takes revenge on a rival by attacking his family

is not a man, he is a worm. He is filth, he is dirt. He deserves nothing but contempt.

[mirandapriestly]

23. Just the absolute LOWEST..nt

[alfredo]

29. That is how we should frame this issue. Beside th legal

issues there's the ethics of attacking a man's family to punish him for telling the truth.

Remember, they destroyed her career and endangered his wife just to hurt him. They didn't care about what happened to her and the rest of his family. They didn't care what damage was done to our national security, they wanted revenge.

[Catherine Vincent]

10. All these snippets about the leak coming out the last few days.

Are things starting to rumble or is it all the same bit of info regurgitated from the different news outlets?

[Emit]

11. In my mind

This gives credence to questions I asked yesterday: Was it really ever declassified
And are they just saying it was now to cover their asses?

Does that make any sense?

[WiseButAngrySara]

18. My suspicion also. How do you believe a liar? ...n/t

[Garbo 2004]

24. We don't know. Apparently things are "declassified" whenever GW or Dick

decide to have them selectively leaked. At least, that's what they seem to be saying.

Although for some strange reason, interestingly, it appears that in 2003 Hadley reportedly was allowed to follow the usual declassification process for the Key Judgments section of the NIE and no one told him, hey you don't have to do that, we just snapped our fingers and presto it's already been declassified. It's just more than a tad fishy.

Remember back in February (I think it was) Fitz's memo to Libby's lawyers mentioned Libby testified he was authorized by his superiors to release classified info from the NIE.

Well there was a bit of media interest in that and folks pointed to an Executive Order or imperial edict or something saying that Bush had delegated "declassification authority" to Cheney.

I recall on at least one occasion Cheney came out of his crypt and publicly mentioned that he had that authority. In the now famous Brit Hume "interview" with Cheney after Cheney shot his friend (in the face, it's now a complete phrase that way) Brit served it up to Cheney and Cheney responded:

Q Let me ask you another question. Is it your view that a Vice President has the authority to declassify information?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: There is an executive order to that effect.

Q There is.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q Have you done it?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I've certainly advocated declassification and participated in declassification decisions. The executive order --

Q You ever done it unilaterally?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't want to get into that. There is an executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and obviously focuses first and foremost on the President, but also includes the Vice President. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/15/AR2006021502005.html

Ironically, of course Brit went on to talk about damaging leaks, like the US prisons in Europe and the NSA spying. Cheney responds that one of the problems of the gov't is its inability to keep secrets. Yeah, Dick, like the identity of a CIA operative...that was a tad damaging too, dontcha think? Here's Cheney on Scooter, long after Fitz had him dead to rights on lying and perjury: "Scooter is entitled to the presumption of innocence. He's a great guy."

But to go back to your question, the Key Judgments section of the NIE that Libby claimed he was authorized to discuss with Miller on July 8 was publicly released on July 18, FWIW, apparently as a result of the procedure Hadley followed. Whether Bush or Cheney previous to Libby's chats with Miller did any official "presto" executive declassification of the NIE info prior to that time (like writing, "declassify this on a Post It note) or just said put the info out there, we don't really know.

[Blue_Roses]

12. ...

:crazy:

[kentuck]

21. left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing ??

sounds like?

[wizdum]

26. Fitzgerald is singlehandedly tearing this administration apart.

The news keeps getting worse and worse for Bush. Soon his numbers will be so bad that his party will turn on him like a pack of hungry wolves (my apologies to wolves everywhere) and vote to impeach him. I'm readying the brews for that fateful day.

[Emit]

28. Yeah. Fitgerald is kicking butt.

As he drew back the curtain this week on the evidence against Vice President Cheney's former top aide, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time described a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the White House" -- using classified information -- to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" a critic of President Bush's war in Iraq.

Bluntly and repeatedly, Fitzgerald placed Cheney at the center of that campaign. Citing grand jury testimony from the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald fingered Cheney as the first to voice a line of attack that at least three White House officials would soon deploy against former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR2006040800916.html

Welcome to DU!

[wizdum]

30. Thanks for the warm welcome Emit...

...I am really green still. I hope everyone is up for some healthy debate. I am enjoying it here so far. I'll keep my fingers crossed that others like having me around and I don't wear out my welcome.

[Peace Patriot]

27. It seems mind-bogglingly ironical to me that the people who outed

Plame and her entire CIA WMD counter-proliferation network, disabling all projects and putting all of its covert CIA agents and contacts around the world at great risk of getting killed, are now all hot and bothered about Iranian proliferation.

And it further boggles the mind that these same people have their fingers on the nuclear trigger. How can this be?!

Well, I know how--when you have Bushite corporations 'counting' all the votes with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, and virtually no audit/recount controls, in an utterly fraudulent voting system designed by the two biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, you can expect that traitors, thieves and mass murderers will gain power. So it's just a rhetorical questio. HOW. CAN. THIS. BE. ?!

:think: :think: :think: :think: :think: :think: :think: :think: :think: